Beadle's Half Dime Library, No. 899

This issue of Beadle and Adams Weekly features "Basement Bert, The Boy Cobbler Detective: Or, On the War-path for Crooked Scalps" by Jo Pierce. The story opens when fifteen-year-old cobbler's apprentice Bert Lincoln and his friend Ches Day encounter Andrew Moss, a South Carolina farmer, who has come to New York after being swindled by a matrimonial bureau. Moss's wife—acquired through the bureau—took his money and stole the deed to his farm before fleeing. When Moss mysteriously vanishes into a cab near the boys, they pursue him unsuccessfully. Investigating his boarding house, they discover a sealed note left in his room by unknown men, suggesting Moss may have been kidnapped. The narrative suggests his runaway wife may be behind the abduction, fearing his determination to recover the stolen papers.